Vietnamese people in Taiwan

Infobox Ethnic group
group=Vietnamese people in Taiwan
population=120,000 - 200,000
related-c=Overseas Vietnamese
regions=All of Taiwan
religions=Mahayana Buddhism [ [http://www.buddhanet.info/wbd/search.php?keyword=&search=Begin+Search&country_id=52&province_id=0 Linh-Son Cultural and Educational Foundation] (second from the bottom)]

languages=Vietnamese; some Mandarin or Hokkien training provided to migrant workers
footnotes=Lower population figure;cite web|title=06-08 外僑居留人數 (06-08: Number of foreign residents)|publisher=Department of Social Affairs, Ministry of the Interior, Republic of China|date=2007|accessdate=2008-01-23|url=http://sowf.moi.gov.tw/stat/year/y06-08.xls|language=Chinese] Upper population figure (sum of separate estimates for migrant workers and foreign spouses);cite news|url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2006/01/18/2003289535|date=2006-01-18|accessdate=2008-01-23|title=Thousands of Vietnamese mark new year|work=Taipei Times] cite news|title=VN-Taiwan discuss brides’ rights in illegally-made matches|work=Vietnamnet Bridge|publisher=Vietnam News Agency|url=http://english.vietnamnet.vn/features/2005/08/482081/|date=2005-08-23|accessdate=2008-01-23|last=Quang|first=Hanh] regions; languages;cite book|title=Global Cinderellas: Migrant Domestics And Newly Rich Employers in Taiwan|first=Pei-Chia|last=Lan|publisher=Duke University Press|date=2006|id=ISBN 0822337428|pages=pp. 51, 69-79] Chinese
c=在台越南人
p=Zàitái Yuènánrén
w=Tsaisu|p=4-t'aisu|p=2 Yüehsu|p=4-nansu|p=2-jensu|p=2
j=zoisup|6 toisup|4 jyutsup|6 naamsup|4 jansup|4
poj=chāi Tâi Oa̍t-lâm-lâng
vie=Người Việt tại Ðài Loan

Vietnamese people in Taiwan form one of the island's larger communities of foreign residents. Of the roughly 80,000 Vietnamese workers who resided in Taiwan as of 2006, 60,000 are employed as domestic helpers, 16,000 work in factories, 2,000 in marine-based industries, and the remainder in other lines of work. They compose 21% of the island's foreign workers.cite news|work=Vietnamnet Bridge|publisher=Vietnam News Agency|url=http://english.vietnamnet.vn/social/2006/12/643269/|date=2006-12-12|accessdate=2008-01-23|title=Demand for Vietnamese labour goes up in Taiwanese market] 42% work in Taipei City, Taipei County, and Taoyuan County. Additionally, 118,300 Vietnamese women who met Taiwan men through international matchmaking services resided in Taiwan as of 2005.

Labour migration

Taiwan is one of the major destinations for Vietnamese labour migrants, especially in the manufacturing and fisheries industries. In 2002, Vietnamese workers in Taiwan composed 28.5% (13,200 individuals) of the 46,200 Vietnamese workers deployed overseas, making Taiwan the second most popular destination ahead of Laos and behind Malaysia; Taiwan maintained its importance as a destination even as migration to South Korea and Japan dropped off. [cite book|title=Labour Migration in Asia: Trends, Challenges and Policy Responses in Countries of Origin|publisher=International Organisation for Migration|id=ISBN 9290681772|date=2003|pages=pp. 2004-2005]

Since Taiwan's Council of Labor Affairs granted approval for their employment beginning in 1999, Vietnamese domestic helpers began to compose a significant proportion of the Vietnamese women in Taiwan. Between 2000 and 2003, the number of Vietnamese domestic helpers grew by fifteen times, from 2,634 individuals to 40,397 individuals, making them the second-largest group of domestic helpers by nationality, ahead of Filipinas and behind Indonesians; they composed one-third of all foreign domestic helpers on the island. Filipinas had formerly been the largest nationality among the population of domestic helpers, as widespread English language education in their country made them ideal tutors for the children of employers. However, their excellent command of English also disturbed the expected power dynamic between them and their employers, who often spoke very poor English; Vietnamese and Indonesians came to be preferred precisely because of their lower level of English, which put them at a disadvantage relative to their employers, and also served as a barrier to restrict their access to networks of support and information outside of the employer's home.

By 2004, Vietnam was sending 37,700 labourers to Taiwan each year, the bulk of them as domestic helpers and hospital workers. However, in 2005, frustrated by the desertion rate of Vietnamese workers, which was the highest rate among labourers of all Asian nationalities in Taiwan, the CLA imposed a freeze on the hiring of Vietnamese labourers in order to have time to discuss the situation with Vietnam's Department for Authority of Foreign Employed Labour, the department responsible for Vietnamese workers abroad. [cite news|url=http://www.giaothongvantai.com/english.vndaily.net/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1347|work=Vietnam Daily|date=2005-01-29|accessdate=2008-01-21|title=Taiwan puts its foot down over migrant workers] By the following year, the two departments had renegotiated the standard labour contracts for Vietnamese workers, extending them from three to six years and cutting down on red tape, as well as adopting a formal grievance policy through which employees could seek redress against their employers; however, the deposit required of workers was also increased, in an effort to address the high rate of contract termination by employees.

Matchmaking and marriages

International matchmaking services flourish in Vietnam despite their illegality; 118,300 Vietnamese women, largely from the south of Vietnam, were married to Taiwan men as of 2005. As early as 2001, Vietnamese women composed 49% of all foreign brides in Taiwan. Their average age was between 25 and 26 years old, while that of their grooms was 36; 54% came from Ho Chi Minh City. 73% were of Kinh ethnicity, the majority group in Vietnam, while the remaining 27% were of Chinese descent. [cite journal|url=http://www.ceps.com.tw/ec/ecjnlarticleView.aspx?atliid=154777&issueiid=10981&jnliid=1452|title=社會階層化下的婚姻移民與國內勞動市場：以越南新娘為例 (Social Stratification, Vietnamese Partners Migration and Taiwan Labour Market)|last=Wang|first=Hong-Zen|date=March 2001|accessdate=2008-01-23|issue=41|pages=99–127|journal=Taiwan: A Radical Quarterly in Social Studies|language=Chinese] 72,411 (60%) of all Vietnamese brides in Taiwan as of 2005 had married within the past ten years. Vietnamese women married to Taiwan men composed 85% of the 11,973 people who naturalised as Republic of China citizens in 2006. [cite web|url=http://www.moi.gov.tw/upload/m_39129_3816087963.doc|publisher=Ministry of the Interior, Republic of China|title=95年我國國籍之歸化、回復及喪失情況 (Naturalisation, restoration, or loss of nationality in our country in Republic Year 95)|date=2007-02-22|accessdate=2008-01-23|language=Chinese] The Vietnamese government established a variety of regulations on international marriages between 2002 and 2005, including prohibiting some marriages where the age gap was too large, and also requiring marriage partners to have a common language of communication. [cite journal|url=http://www.ceps.com.tw/ec/ecjnlarticleView.aspx?atliid=455930&issueiid=31351&jnliid=1307|title=越南「好女性」的文化邊界與「越南新娘」：「尊嚴」vs.「靈魂之債」 (The Cultural Boundary of 'Good Women' in Vietnam and 'Vietnamese Brides': 'Pride' vs. 'Debt of the Soul')|last=Lee|first=Mei-Hsien|volume=3|issue=1|date=April 2006|pages=37–62|language=Chinese|journal=Taiwan Journal of Southeast Asian Studies|issn=1811-5713|accessdate=2008-01-23] The Republic of China government also seeks to limit the amount of spousal migration, but unlike the Vietnamese government, the only tool with which they can effectively control it is visa policy. Their implementation in this regard has changed over the years; they originally conducted individual interviews for spousal visas, changing to group interviews in 1999; in 2005, they imposed a limit of 20 visa interviews per day. [cite journal|last=Kung|first=I-Chun|title=國家與婚姻：台越跨國婚姻政治 (State and Marriage Politics: The Cross-Border Marriage between Taiwan and Vietnam)|journal=Taiwan Journal of Southeast Asian Studies|volume=3|issue=1|date=April 2006|pages=83–103|language=Chinese|accessdate=2008-01-23|url=http://www.ceps.com.tw/ec/ecjnlarticleView.aspx?atliid=455946&issueiid=31351&jnliid=1307|issn=1811-5713] By 2007, the number of new brides had fallen off from a peak of around 14,000 per year to just one-third that size.cite news|work=Radio Taiwan International|title=聯合國刊物報導　嫁台越南新娘淪為無國籍困境 (United Nations report: Vietnamese brides married to Taiwan men fall into the trap of statelessness)|date=2007-12-12|accessdate=2008-01-23|last=Chung|first=Chin-lung|url=http://www.rti.com.tw/News/NewsContentHome.aspx?NewsID=91791&t=1|language=Chinese]

According to statistics of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, an estimated 3,000 Vietnamese women formerly married to Taiwan husbands have been left stateless after their divorces; the women had given up Vietnamese nationality to naturalise as Republic of China citizens at the time of their marriage, but then returned to Vietnam following their divorces and gave up their Republic of China nationality in the process of applying for restoration of Vietnamese nationality. Their children, who hold only Republic of China nationality and have never previously been Vietnamese nationals, are ineligible to enter publicly-supported schools in Vietnam.

Notable individuals

*Father Peter Nguyen, human rights activist [cite news|url=http://big5.huaxia.com/tw/sdbd/rw/2007/00732338.html|date=2007-12-18|accessdate=2008-01-21|title=外籍神父看台灣 阮文雄 (A foreign priest's view of Taiwan: Nguyen Van Hung)|work=United Daily News|language=Chinese]

ee also

*Koreans in Taiwan
*Mongolians in Taiwan

References

Further reading

*cite journal|url=http://hermes.hrc.ntu.edu.tw/csa/journal/71/journal_park712.htm|title=從越南觀點看越南台灣人：越僑全球化與移民精神 (Looking at Taiwan people of Vietnam origin from the viewpoint of Vietnam: Viet Kieu Globalisation and Immigrant Consciousness)|last=Yang|first=Tsung-jong|journal=Cultural Studies Monthly|date=2007-08-25|accessdate=2008-01-23|issue=71|publisher=Centre for Humanities Research, National Taiwan University